Assembling bodies-and-spaces: a conceptual approach to understanding midwives' perceptions of chest/breastfeeding families and the home environment

Chest/breastfeeding parents have consistently voiced their need for relational styles of perinatal care. This care is essential to the maintenance of breastfeeding long-term. Little Canadian research has focused on midwives’ support of families at home and their perceptions of how socio-physical environments affect chest/breastfeeding. This knowledge gap is important because up to 90% of Canadian people intend to breastfeed prenatally. Substantially less exclusively breastfeed their infants at 6 months of age. In this study, I drew on a postmodern conceptual framework to analyze, describe and interpret the accounts of six midwives and their perceptions of breastfeeding families at home. Findings illustrate that midwives support breastfeeding by participating in dynamic bodily encounters with families and creatively engage with spaces to enhance parent-infant togetherness after birth. Findings fill a critical gap in knowledge about these emergent, embodied relations and their impact on breastfeeding practices at home.